USA Freedom Act: What’s in, what’s out

The USA Freedom Act, passed by Congress and signed by the president Tuesday night, reauthorizes parts of the USA Patriot Act but dissolves its notorious bulk data collection of Americans’ phone records and Internet metadata.

The bill bans the bulk collection of data of Americans’ telephone records and Internet metadata.

It limits the government’s data collection to the “greatest extent reasonably practical”—which means the government can’t collect all data pertaining to a particular service provider or broad geographic region, such as a city or area code.

What’s in

Instead of bulk data collection, the bill authorizes the government to collect from phone companies up to “two hops” of call records related to a suspect, if the government can prove it has “reasonable” suspicion that the suspect is linked to a terrorist organization.

It provides the government with new reporting requirements to FISA authorities.

It gives private companies more opportunities to publicly report information about the number of FISA orders they receive.

It declassifies FISA Court opinions that contain significant legal interpretations, or, if declassification is not possible, requires that a summary is provided.

It requires the FISA Court to designate a panel of “amicus curiae,” or advocates, to represent the public’s interest in cases that involve novel or significant legal issues.

It increases the maximum penalty for material support to terrorism from 15 years to 20 years.

It extends the expiration of three Patriot Act provisions—Section 215, roving wiretaps and the lone wolf surveillance authority—to December 2019.